Supplementary Materials

The PDF file includes:

  • Fig. S1. Myosin motors cluster over time.
  • Fig. S2. Temporal behavior of root mean square velocity.
  • Fig. S3. Myosin motors do not localize to defect cores.
  • Fig. S4. Time averaging of defect spacing.
  • Fig. S5. Effect of flow alignment on the change of defect morphology.
  • Fig. S6. Director field associated with different defect orientations.
  • Supplementary Text
  • Legends for movies S1 to S10

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Other Supplementary Material for this manuscript includes the following:

  • Movie S1 (.avi format). Crowding of actin filaments (mean length, l = 1 μm) on an oil-water interface forming a 2D nematic LC.
  • Movie S2 (.avi format). A dense film of actin filaments (red, l = 1 μm) and myosin II (green) form an active nematic.
  • Movie S3 (.avi format). Generation of topological defect pairs in actomyosin-based active nematic (l = 1 μm).
  • Movie S4 (.avi format). Persistent motion of a +1/2 defect (solid symbol) along its orientation in our actomyosin-based active nematics (l = 1 μm); −1/2 (open symbol) defect remains immobile.
  • Movie S5 (.avi format). Fluorescence images of actin (left) and myosin (right) in actin nematic (l = 2 μm).
  • Movie S6 (.avi format). Time-lapse imaging of fluorescent actin in a passive nematic LC (l = 1 μm, c = 0 μm−2) showing annihilation of defect pairs.
  • Movie S7 (.avi format). Time-lapse imaging of fluorescent actin in an active nematic LC (l = 1 μm, c = 0.01 μm−2) showing defect repulsion.
  • Movie S8 (.avi format). Time-lapse imaging of fluorescent actin in an active nematic LC (l = 1 μm, c = 0.0015 μm−2) showing defect stalling, where the defect pair separation (indicated by open symbols) does not change significantly over the course of 3 min.
  • Movie S9 (.avi format). Simulation movie of defect dynamics in a quasi-2D active nematic LC.
  • Movie S10 (.avi format). Time-lapse imaging of ± defect pair dynamics in active nematic LC (l = 1 μm, c = 0.0015 μm−2) showing that defect orientations change from roughly antiparallel at large separation to parallel when close, consistent with the structural analysis of defects in simulations.

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